What I Never Knew But Always Wanted
by Miss Book
Summary: Kim receieves a shock when her best friend's life long crush, Jared, starts to show interest in her. Will the strain put on their friendship ever be fixed? Will Kim end up with Jared? Most Canon. No Bella, and no Cullens. Chapters get longer.
1. The Swirl and Swing of Words

**AN**

**You don't want to hear the story of how this story came to be, you just want to read it, but first, there are some people I need to thank. Sun Daughter, canjam, and LuvableLittleMonster for your excellent critique and help, mandihale who may or may not be reading this for having me on her author alerts, Strictly-Ballroom, clarabella75, liljenrocks, and ninadoll for being some of the best authors I've read on this site, and for, even though you may not know it, inspiring me to keep writing, and finally, James A. Michener for providing the quote from which we get today's chapter title;**

**"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions."**

**I own no one except my OC Myra.**

**Enjoy.**

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Kim's POV

I loved my best friend, but sometimes she could be so annoying. I didn't even get the variety that most girls with boy crazy friends do. No, Myra had to stick with the same boy forever.

"You know he walked by me at lunch and I swear that he grew a couple of feet."

"Eww, mutations like that are disgusting. Is he having them removed?" I liked to poke fun at her, especially when the joke was encrypted in strange implied messages that could take her up to an hour to figure out.

"You know, that doesn't even make sense. Tall isn't a mutation."

If there was a time before Jared I couldn't remember it. My earliest memory (as sad as this is) is racing to the coveted spot on the swing set with Myra. Having only two swings was bad decision making on the part of whoever designed that park. My legs ached and Myra's breathing made me think she had an elephant on her chest, but at least we had made it, and now we had 15 minutes of…whatever it was that we loved to do on the swings. Considering I was never a very fast person, I was beaming at the thought that I had beaten everyone else to the swings. Then, who should show up and ruin it but Jared. My heart sank as I heard the words come out of Myra's mouth; 'Hey Jared, you want my seat?' Dramatization? I don't think so. That was one of the most horrific experiences of my childhood life. I'm still holding it against him to this day.

"Oh, you meant the plural of foot. That would be so gross. My Jared would never have more than two feet."

"He's not _your_Jared. Actually, I believe that he's currently seeing Aletta."

Not that he would've known that I had anything against him. Neither Myra nor I ever talked to him, which made me question her infatuation with him further. The only time when I came close to talking to him was in Math, where I tried to ignore him for two reasons;

1. I resented him for the multiple occasions in the past when he ruined my childhood (including but not limited to the swing incident) and

2. If he said anything to me I'd have to memorize it and repeat it back to Myra word for word later.

"Altessa is…never mind. You should have been there though. It can't be normal for someone to grow that much in two weeks."

I needed to get off this topic. "If you don't stop talking about him, I'm going to sneak into your room in the middle of the night and cut off all of your hair."

"Whatever."

I knew that it wouldn't be as much of a 'whatever' if I actually did it, not that I ever would. But for the sake of winning the argument I'd have to step up my game, and hit her where it hurts.

"Fine, if you don't stop talking about him, I'm going to sneak into _his_ room in the middle of the night and cut off all of _his_ hair."

"Ah! No! That would be awful." I wish I'd had a picture of her face. "Although, it looks like someone did something almost just like that. And, oh my God; I would love to sneak into his room in the middle of the night."

"Ugh."

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**So, yes, it's short. But as you may have already noticed, I posted two at the same time, and will continue to update the chapters like this. **

**And please review, cause the ratio of the effort it takes you to review to my happiness is like 1:1000.**


	2. Some Call It Stalking

Myra's POV

"I've never tried pomegranate juice before. Do you think it would be any good?" Kim asked, fidgety and over talkative, as she always was when she was cold or nervous, or, as in this case, both. I tried to focus on the task at hand, but my shrugging off of the question didn't deter her. "There was a grocery store back there, cute little family owned place, who make their own pomegranate juice."

"Kim, why do we think we're here?"

There was a pause; no doubt she was deciding whether to take a sarcastic route or to just stay silent. While I hoped for the second, cynicism in the face of danger was always Kim's first choice.

"Well, you're here to follow Jared around, '_close enough to see, but far enough to not be seen'_," she wrapped the ladder part in air quotes, "until you decide whether you go home and eat a bucket of celebratory raspberry sherbet, because he's not with this Alexa chick, or have to eat a bucket of Monkey Chunky ice cream in mourning because he is."

I tried to stop her but the rant continued, "And _I'm _here, because either way, you're too weak and lazy to carry home a pound of frozen dessert."

"Oh my Goodness, there he is!" I could see him walking in from where we were sitting, but couldn't tell if anyone was with him.

"Umph," a sound of dismissal from Kim.

"Do you think he'll notice my new dress?"

"I think he'll notice it about as much as the last time you bought new clothes to impress him."

"That was different." Sometimes I wish that Kim would share some of my enthusiasm about Jared. I mean, he's _amazing_! She wouldn't even have to be in love with him. Okay, rephrase: her being in love with him would be the worst thing possible, but would it hurt to be _a little _excited? Excited for me, at least?

"How?"

"Last time my budget was only forty bucks. Guess how much I spent on this number right here?"

"Probably too much considering how little fabric it's made of."

"When you're dealing with boys, things work differently. It's like fishing, you have to lure them in with something shiny, something colourful, something…"

"Half a dying worm?"

"Eww, no!"

"Then you hook them with your cold metal hook. Good plan! I know of a 24 hour bait dispenser we could visit."

"Stop letting my poor metaphor making skills distract you from the point."

"Fish dinner?" She asked, almost keeping a straight face.

"I'm going to get some punch."

"No, don't leave me," she whispered, "I hate big crowds."

I sat back down, only now realizing that I had lost sight of my Jared in the masses. I hate crowds too, if only for this reason. Kim nudged my arm, nodding to the spot where Jared, the love of my life and the only boy I've ever liked, was weaving his way through the multitude of party-goers, in our direction.

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**Not much to say here. Just please, please review, and I own no one but Myra.**


	3. A God That Can Dance

**AN**

**Thanks to everyone from before, as well as xxSillyWillyxx and Katie for your reviews.  
I don't own anyone except Myra.**

**Today's title comes from a quote that I kinda switched around a bit. I think the original was 'I will not worship a God who cannot dance.' If you can tell me who said it you get a cookie.**

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Kim's POV

All I wanted to do was make some sarcastic remark about how _if_ Jared actually was coming over here I would be left all alone in this large croud of people, something I despised even more than…people who wear socks and sandals, or running shoes and _no_ socks.

All I _could_ do was look down and spin my index finger around the rim of my water bottle while I tried to ignore Myra's fingernails digging into my arm.

I kept my eyes down, but those were unmistakably Jared's feet standing in front of us. Not that I could recognize his feet; Myra had simply stopped breathing, and I was sure her fingernails had started drawing blood.

"You wanna dance?" His voice sounded deeper when it wasn't simply Myra's recreation of something he'd said in art class. Still, even with his deep and comfort-filled voice uttering the words, I was sure that there hadn't been dancing happening moments ago. I looked up in just about enough time to see his hand reaching for mine.

He pulled me out of my seat, effortlessly, as I was too shocked to do anything to stop him. Too shocked to breathe.

He led me to the middle of the room. I tried to pull my hand away. If he even noticed he didn't show it.

Not until he spun around to face me and I looked into his eyes did I see a flurry of emotions that had not been there moments ago and definitely not there on the few times we'd made eye contact in school;

Longing, Empathy, Interest, Hope, Desire, Ecstasy, Grief, Worry, Frustration, Fear, Despair

I'm a _girl _and I don't even have that many emotions swirling around at once. I wondered what Jared saw in _my_ eyes. Fear? Worry? We had that in common at least. Not that I wanted to have anything in common with him. The only thing that I wanted from him was to let go of me so I could run as far away from here as possible.

His hands wrapped around my waist, interlocking at the back. Mine lightly sat on his shoulders, more because of my still festering uncomfortablity with this situation than his towering presence. Although, getting my arms around his neck comfortably probably _would_ be a feat. He really _had _grown.

"Is your arm okay?" he asked. I followed his gaze to the spot where Myra'd been holding my arm- _Myra!_

We had slowly turned around so that I could now see where Myra and I had been sitting. Big surprise; she was no longer there.

I felt nauseous as my life flashed before my eyes like a life or death situation. This was definitely on of those; if and when Myra ever spoke to me again, she was going to kill me.

Jared stepped away for a moment and ripped the arm off of his T-shirt. He looked up at me a chuckled. I flushed as I reset my face from the shocked state it was in to a more controlled neutral position, and hoped he hadn't mistaken my expression for any sort of attraction. He gently picked up my arm and wrapped his ripped sleve around it.

The cuts had broken the skin, but weren't really bleeding, and I was pretty sure that this gesture was completely useless, but I couldn't seem to communicate that, letting out a series of _uh_s, _um_s, and _ah_s instead. But it didn't really matter, because by the time I had formed a full thought, Jared had already locked his hands behind my back and started slow dancing for a second time.

I tried to pull away again. I don't think Jared noticed. I hung down my head in defeat. My forehead was stopped by his shoulder/chest area and I looked again at his unsocked-yet-runningshoed feet. I'd have to switch some things around on that list of things I hate. I'd just decided on a new number one.

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**Hope you didn't see that coming, even though I know you did.  
This chapter was originally shorter, so I added some more fulff for you guys.**

**Next chapter goes up in six hours, but one hour comes off the countdown clock for every review I get, so REVIEW!**


	4. The Instant Reaction

**AN**

**First off, I just want you to know how sorry I am for the cheesyness of the wording at the end of the first paragraph. You have no idea how long I tried to rewrite it. Oh, and sorry for how mean I am to Jared.  
Thanks to all the aforemensioned gang. YOU ROCK! Also, big thanks to Japanesegirl388 and Hanski; you know what you did.  
No one is mine except Myra.**

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Jared's POV

The moment on vacation when you forget what day of the week it is, nailing that perfect move in a board game, locking people out of the car and pretending to drive away, picking the perfect nacho off someone else's plate, using Rock-Paper-Scissors to settle anything, laughing so hard you start crying, when you open a book to the exact page you were looking for, drawing on steamy mirrors with your fingers, walking on grass with bare feet. Nothing compares to that moment when her arms relaxed, she set her head on my chest and just let the music move her feet.

I just wished I'd seen her face again before she ran out at the end of the song.

I had to tell someone or I might...I don't know. Explode? My heart felt like it was beating so fast it could give out any second, but that wasn't new as of tonight; just a wolf thing. On my way to Sam's, another wolf thing was brought to my attention, I started to hear another voice pop into my head; Paul.

'We've got trouble.'

'Really?' I tried not to let my fear show through the excitement. Although I've been a werewolf longer than Paul, he's somehow managed to be on the only two shifts where there was any kind of vampiric activity.

'No need to be afraid, I was just kidding. Nothing ever happens around here. Don't worry though; I'll protect you if anything ever does.'

Deciding I needed to pick my battles, and that fighting Paul's teasing wasn't all that important, I phased back, throwing my shorts on before heading in to Emily's.

"Hey Jared," she called from the kitchen, "are you hungry?"

What kind of a question was that? I was always hungry lately. My shrug as I entered the kitchen seemed to be a good enough response for her, because she put a plate stacked with a massive pile of hot dogs in front of me when I sat down.

"Leave some for the others," she implored before walking back into Sam's arms.

Their uncalled for PDA made me slightly uncomfortable, but also excited for the next time I would hold Kim-my beautiful wonderful perfect angel Kim-in my arms. The connection between Sam and Emily was anything but ordinary, and it gave me confidence for when I would face Kim-my gorgeous breathtaking faultless angel Kim-tomorrow.

"Hey, Jared?" said Sam, as though he had just noticed me.

"Umphur," I tried to respond, but my mouth was full of hotdog.

"What's that _look_? On your face."

My attempt at a response was cut off by Paul.

"He imprinted."

I was shocked that he'd figured it out. Sam seemed sort of pleased. Emily turned around and started the dishes, the talking of imprinting aloud still made her kind of uncomfortable. Embry remained in the corner chair, _everything_ to do with wolves still made _him_ uncomfortable. And Paul had a ridiculous grin on his face, like a five-year-old who just got to be the first on to jump out and yell SURPRISE at a birthday party.

"How'd you know?"

"Are you kidding? I was _just_ in your head."

"Well," Sam cut in, but waited a few more seconds, as if he was deeply in thought, before continuing, "congratulations."

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**When I write these, they seem a lot longer than when I read them again later.**

**Anyways, please review.**


	5. Of The 36 Alternatives

**AN**

**Sorry this one's a bit late. If there are any errors it's cause I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. There's only one for tonight, but you can expect the next one in 2-3 business days (and for us writers, everyday is a business day). It'll be soon, don't worry.**

**Full title quote: 'Of the 36 Alternatives, running is always best' If you tell me who said it you get a treat.**

**I don't want to write an after note too, so...REVIEW**

**No characters are mine except Myra.**

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Myra's POV

I breathed in the 'pine fresh' air. My car still smelled like stale potato chips and gasoline if you asked me. Kim insisted that it made a difference. She was probably bias though, considering she was the one who bought it for me. I stepped out of the car 'Superstar Style', they way the stars do it when they're wearing a short skirt and they don't want a picture of them flashing the world in the tabloids the next day. Well, some stars. It's a trick I learned at camp, and have been doing ever since, regardless of what I was wearing.  
Today, I was wearing a skirt, and, as it was a particularly windy day, most of my attention was aimed at keeping my skirt from flying around. Until I looked up.  
There they were, the love of my life and my ex-best friend, standing over by the staircase, making out. Her hands around his neck, her waist occupied by his hands, her hair gently blowing in the same wind that was almost knocking me off my feet, and her _tongue _down his _throat_.  
Okay, you got me, that's a bit of an exaggeration. What was it? The hands? Yeah, there's no way that that midget munchkin known as Kim could get her arms all the way up and around his glorious neck. And for all of you out there who doubt whether a neck can be glorious, you've obviously never met Jared.  
It was almost as bad as that. She was leaned up against the wall. His left hand was propping him up against said wall, and _her _left hand was on his right arm. ON HIS ARM!

I could only imagine their conversation;

"Jared, I want to be with you."

"I don't know, what about Myra? I've always had a secret thing for her"

"Forget about her! She's not important!"

"Isn't she your friend?"

"No, I never really cared about her at all."

The bell rang, pulling me out of my imaginary state again.

They turned around to face the school, and away from me. His hand lowered to the small of her back as they walked to class…together.

That should've been my back.

I turned away. Ran home. I ignored the dry scratching in my throat, the stitch in my side, and the fact that I could've just taken my car. The running helped me to forget, and made me feel that my life didn't suck so bad. I ran till I reached my bedroom, collapsed on my bed, and dreamt of running. Not the worst thing that my subconscious mind could make me watch on repeat for a couple of hours. Not the worst thing at all.

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When I woke up later it was dark. If I didn't get my car back before my dad got home from the late shift I would be in some deep trouble.

I threw on a sweater and put a flashlight in my back pocket. It was a twenty minute walk to school, ten if I cut through the forest.

It wasn't the rustling that kept me out of the forest. It was the lack thereof. Like everything in the forest had fled.

3 minutes: I pulled out the flashlight

5 minutes: I'd already checked over my shoulder eight times

9 minutes: I knew I was being followed

11 minutes: I wished I'd brought some pepper spray

12 minutes: I wished I'd taken that self defense class

15 minutes: I was mentally rewriting my will; there were some people I needed to exclude

16 minutes: There was a huge crash, crunch, and snap behind me. I froze, then slowly turned around on the balls of my feet. There was a tree caved in to the forest, as if a truck had crashed into it. Had it been like that before? I ran the rest of the way. It wasn't the same kind of running as earlier. This was running for my life; as fast as I could.

18 minutes: I slammed into my car, fumbled with the keys, and jumped in. I took a minute to catch my breath, but didn't want to wait too long. Whatever knocked down that tree probably wouldn't have much trouble getting into my car.

20 minutes: I drove home at twice the speed limit, but figured it couldn't be too dangerous considering my reflexes were on hyper drive.

24 minutes: I pulled into the driveway, but took another deep breath before getting out.

25 minutes: I was a couple steps away from the car before I went back, ripped out the air freshener, and headed up to my room to start the first draft of my new will.


	6. The Saddest Are These

**AN**

**Yeah, I own no one.**

**Full quote is something like 'Of all the words in the world, the saddest are these; it could have been' so I figured it was appropriate.**

**Thanks to everyone.**

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Jared's POV

"You're working under the impression that she's already so madly in love with you that nothing else matters."

"You're the one who told me you though she had a thing for me."

"Well, maybe not," Embry said casually. This conversation was beginning to slightly anger me.

"This isn't a casual situation. This is about her happiness."

"You're happiness, you mean."

"What?"

"What made you think she wasn't happy before?"

Where was all this alleged wisdom coming from? Embry had no idea what he was talking about. There's no way he, or anyone else who hadn't imprinted, could understand. He was most likely just trying to poke fun. I looked up to the table where Kim-my gentle, amazing, heart-stoppingly beautiful Kim-was sitting. I longed to fill the emptiness next to her, but her words from earlier still rang in my head.

"_Kim...Kim...Kim wait up," I called as I ran after her. I stepped in front of her and put out my arm onto the wall to keep her from going any further._

"_What?" she asked in a quiet but strong voice._

"_Umm..." I'd forgotten what I was going to say. Honey. Chocolate. Peanut butter cookies. The smells that surrounded her were delicious. "Do you..." I tried to restart, but my train of thought was stolen again as she looked up at me._

"_Listen Jared-" Did she just say my name? That angel just said my name. I think I'm the luckiest man alive. Wait. Why was she walking away? I caught up and walked beside her._

"_Sorry, what did you say?"_

"_I said," she raised her voice as she stopped walking again, "leave me _alone_!"_

"_Huh?" came out of my mouth, barely a whisper. I could barely hear the murmurs of the crowd over the sound of my breaking heart._

_She grabbed my hand (which I hadn't realized that I'd placed on her back until now) and threw it down. "And get your hand OFF me!"_

_She left, leaving a crowd of shocked students and one heartbroken werewolf in her wake._

I haven't felt so small since second grade; my mother got mad at me when the principal called to tell her I'd pushed someone over for trying to steal my shoe. Back then, she towered over me. Now I pretty much tower over everyone, but still felt as small as an eight year old.

So basically, I'm screwed. She hates me. My soul mate, my brilliant graceful perfect star, my one thing in the world worth living for, hates me. There, I'd admitted it.

But that wasn't an admission of defeat. I would keep trying. I had to keep trying.

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**Wow, that one was short.**

**But, please review.**

**That's your challenge. Review at least five words. Is that too much to ask? If so, just review 'Five words is too much to ask'. There! You'd have already completed the challenge!**


	7. Twice a Fool Who Has No Plan

**AN**

**A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.**  
**Louis L'Amour**

**Thanks to everyone who helped, all my reviewers, and those who have faved or put this story on their alert list. Your support is what keeps me going.**

**This part happens after the last part...yeah...that's why it's...after. Sorry, maniacinthemaking, I'm not trying to...you know...make fun of you or anything. OH! I remember why I needed this! The _fight_ that they're talking about happened _during_ the second part of the last chapter, just incase that wasn't obvious.**

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Jared POV

"How was _that_ for a vamp fight?" Paul seemed very wound up.

Neither myself nor Jacob were quite as excited. It had been a first for both of us, but I had all of my problems distracting me from enjoying it and Jacob, who had just left to the other room, had problems of his own.

"Hope you didn't get too scared," Paul taunted some more before diving face-first into a bowl (now filled with chips) that always seemed to have full on the living room table.

There was yelling coming from the kitchen.

"What do you mean?" shouted Sam.

"I'm just not doing it!" Jacob yelled back.

"It's your responsibility!"

"Don't give me that shit about responsibility, things are fine the way they are!"

"Hell no! I'm sick of this; sick of having to do this all the time!"

"Really? Well you haven't minded bossing me around for the past week!"

"You said that once you got the hang of things you'd take over. It's been a week, and tonight we fought off two vampires. You're taking over right now!" Sam roared.

"That's your argument? You promised?"

It astounded me that through this all, Embry and Paul had finished half the bowl of chips, and seemed completely unphased. I got up and walked towards the fighting.

Emily had her hands on Sam's chest trying to calm him down, but he was way passed the point where anything could do that. I ran over and pulled Emily out of the way, as if she were my own Kim, just before Sam exploded and burst outside, taking half the kitchen with him.

Emily looked disappointed, but not surprised. As soon as they had disappeared into the forest, she started cleaning up.

"You wanna let them fight it out, or should we go break it up?" Paul asked, probably hoping that our trying to break up the fight would simply place us in the middle of it, or something like that. Either way, Paul was always looking for some action, and his motives couldn't be pure.

"Sam'll most likely order him off before either of them get too mangled up," I answered before realizing that that hadn't really given him a definitive response, so I continued, "Do what you want, I'm going home."

I ran through the forest towards Kim's house. I decided to stay human. I didn't need Paul making fun of me or Sam ordering me not to go. I climbed a tree on the edge of her backyard, but far enough into the forest that she couldn't see me. I watched her watching TV.

I waited until she went upstairs and fell asleep, and then I went home.

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**That one was super short. Sorry guys. The chapter I'm working on now is like three times as long as any of the others. You won't see it for a while though, because it's Chapter 11. I stared this story with 9 written, and I'm only now starting on 12. I'm so screwed. This writers block/chronic laziness is awful. And there's only three way's I'll be able to write faster;  
****1) Send me a box of chocolate covered almonds.  
2) Send me a hot guy...for inspiration. (Come to think of it, this may not help, as it would ultimately just distract me...do it anyways)  
3) Review.**

**Expect the next installment on Sunday or Monday. I've switched from updating two-at-a-time-once-a-week to one-at-a-time-twice-a-week. Let me know which way you like it, cause it doesn't really matter to me.**


	8. When in Russia

**AN**

**Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.**  
**Agnes Smedley**

**Default title (the one I was going to use if I couldn't find a cool quote): In Case You Need To Make Some Jam**

**Thanks to maniacinthemaking, kipper22, esyuen, Helewisetran, Hanski, nabela, and all other readers.**

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I was lucky that Jared had decided to come to this spot. I knew every nook and cranny of this beach from all of the times we'd come here as kids. It wasn't a very big space, definitely not as big as First Beach, but, as we had learned as children playing hide-and-seek, there were plenty of great places for several people to 'see, but not be seen'.

But today I was here working alone, which had its ups and downs.

UP: I can fit in more places when I'm by myself, and I don't have Kim there to nag me about how I might not be able to get out of somewhere.

DOWN: There's no one to help me out when I get stuck.

UP: I don't have to listen to nagging of any kind.

DOWN: It gets lonely.

UP: It's a lot easier to stay quiet.

DOWN: There's no one to bounce ideas off of.

UP: There's no one to criticize every idea that you try to bounce off of them.

DOWN: Ever tried to hide alone? It makes you have to pee really bad.

Some of the questions that I really needed to have bouncing around were:

Why wasn't he wearing a shirt? (Not that I was complaining)

What was he doing here?

Why was he alone?

I watched him pace across the beach. Was this where he came to think too?

There was a noise behind me. I slowly turned my head over my right shoulder. I yelped when, instead of the bear I was expecting, there was a guy behind me.

"What the hell?" I said with as much power as one can put into a whisper.

"Sorry, I was...walking...in the forest," the boy (who wasn't really a boy, more of a man, but saying man makes me think of someone really old in that pedo creeper kind of way. Let's say early twenties, just for clarity) said.

After some stuttered 'Shh's, I managed to come up with this brilliant response, "Shut up!"

He gave me a quizzical look.

"I'm trying to keep a low profile," I explained.

Something about this boy/man/guy was giving me a strange feeling. After some careful thought, I decided that I didn't like it, but by then it was too late.

He'd already thrown me in a burlap sack and tossed me into the back of his 2005 Dodge Sprinter cargo van and we were headed off to Mexico, Russia, or some other God-forsaken Jaredless place.

No, he'd just laid down next to me on the ground (which could've turned just as ugly). We were both on our stomachs (which couldn't've been comfortable for him, being shirtless and all), with our heads propped up on our arms, laying beside one another.

It might've been the general weirdness of the situation or that my right side now felt a couple of degrees warmer than my left, but I missed something very important;

Kim showed up.

It wasn't enough to know that she was here now. I should've been watching to see how she arrived.

You can tell a lot about a person by their entrance (exits too, but that's a different story); their intentions, their confidence, their relations with others. It's why I always work so hard on the way I get in and out of my car.

Right now I could almost assume the worst.

She probably strutted in (projecting her confidence) with her eyes up (showing how she's focused on the future and what's to come) and her shoes making their clickety-clackety sounds (so everyone notices her). That's exactly what the new Kim would do. What the new friend-betraying future-husband-stealing wench, Kim, would do.

"I wish I could hear what they were saying," I said to myself more than the man/guy/boy beside me – I'd almost forgotten he was there.

"She asked him what he was doing here, to which he replied 'It's a public beach', but she got upset and was mumbling about this being her safe haven, hide-and-seek, dead grandmother, then he asked her out and got rejected a couple of times."

I was astounded.

Astounded that some random guy/boy/man would find it amusing to scare some girl by jumping out of a bush in the forest, intrude upon her personal spave, then outright lie to her face.

"There's no way you could hear her mumbling from over here. I have perfect hearing and I can't even hear them talking."

"Right," he replied like a five year old caught in a lie, who just realized he'd said something she shouldn't've, something that didn't make sense.

"Look; I don't need any liars on my team."

"Team?"

"Yeah, Team Myra. The team bent on destroying the evil forces of Kim, saving Jared from her backstabbing and trickery, and reuniting him with his true love; me.

He hesitated, but we made a pact. Just like in grade school, but without the spit. I now had a partner with all the advantages of company, and none of the disadvantages of Kim.

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**Who is it? It's probably way too obvious. Especially if you've read my old summary.**

**REVIEW PLEASE. It's the only thing that keeps me writing. And I really want to get to chapter 11 ASAP cause I'm super excited about it! I can't keep shifting up updates where you don't deserve them. Or maybe you just don't like me.**

**Should I write another chapter?**


	9. The Little Jobs Well

**AN**

**Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. ~Dale Carnegie**

**Big thanks again to Hanski (you rock a million times over), 7Cerberus7, and all my reviewers and those who helped on this story.  
And thanks to Steph, cause she created Twilight (not I) and where would any of us be without her?**

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This morning I almost forgot. The Almighty Force of Goodness almost let me forget about all of the crap going on in my life.

I walked into out school's make-shift cafeteria/auditorium/part-time gym, ready to talk all about the latest plot twist from our favourite television program. I sat down next to me (ex?) best friend. My mouth had almost started into one of its television rants, when I was awoken from my memory-loss fuelled delusions. Without a word, she got up, packed her stuff, and marched over to another table. She sat beside a...student? Teacher? He looked to be in the wrong age group for either. We'll just have to mix both of those up and call him and call him 'the half man half boy who Myra went to sit with instead of me' (THMHBWMWTSWIOM) or maybe just ManBoy.

I didn't recognise him exactly, but he did seem familiar. He could've been the older sibling of someone who was actually the right age to go to this school.

It hurt that she chose to sit with this ManBoy I've never even _seen _before over the best friend who she's known forever. _I_ sat with her on the beach together when her grandmother passed even though it was pouring and those stupid trees on that stupid beach didn't offer any protection._ I_ stayed up with her all night when she thought she was going to fail her science test so I could re-teach her the entire unit she missed because she spent all of her time staring at a certain boy. And _I'm _the one who's stood beside her all these years through all this Jared madness. What has this guy ever done? How dare he just jump out of nowhere and steal her from me?

Jared was now beside me. When had he gotten there? I thought about just getting up and leaving right then, but decided to stick around and hear what he had to say. Because truthfully, although I'd kill you if you ever told Myra, I liked being around Jared and I liked having him around me. There were some things about him that didn't seem so bad. The way he looked at me, the way he looked, his voice, his eyes, his kind and gentleness, his warmth, this smile, his fiery persistence. They were all things that I hadn't noticed before, even when Myra had pointed them out.

"So, this Friday,"

"No."

"I was thinking, you and me,"

"No."

"Could go get something to eat,"

"No."

"Together,"

"Definitely no."

"My treat,"

"Super no."

"I know this nice place,"

"Infinite no."

"I already made us reservations."

Why wasn't I going out with this gorgeous hunk of mantastic Prince Charming, again? Oh, right, to save my non-existent friendship, which was remaining broken basically no matter what I did. Maybe one date couldn't...Uh, oh. I'd waited too long to answer and now his hopes were up which would make saying no and watching his broken-hearted face even harder.

I put my head down, rested on my arms.

Jared placed his hand on my back as if he were some concerned third person, and _not_ the cause of all my problems. It felt warm. It felt nice. It felt comforting.

It made my heart leap. Just like every day since the party; He'd come over here, try to ask me out, be rejected, then instead of leaving, like a normal person, he'd sit beside me throwing in the occasional "You look beautiful today", "I like what you've done with your hair", "You know, I really think you should at least _try_going out with me", "I'd never hurt you", or -my favorite- "Are you gunna finish that?". I tried my best to ignore him.

Deep breath.

"No, Jared. No Friday, and no date."

I got up and walked away, not daring to look back, and not daring to see Jared's face.

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I was staring at the stars outside my window. I'd pulled the screen off a couple of years ago when we discovered how much fun sneaking on to the roof was, so I was leaning out of the window, breathing the fresh air, and staring at the stars, with nothing in between us but a million miles of space.

Staring at the stars always seemed to help people in movies or TV figure out things about love the same way sitting on the roof and writing in a journal did. The plan tonight: Kill two birds with one stone.

I laid a folded fleece blanket over the ledge of my window so that getting in and out would be easier, more comfortable.

When I leaned out- SPIDER! I brushed it away with a bouquet of plastic flowers I'd bought for a school project. ON THE OTHER SIDE! There was another one! I swept it down onto the roof, sending the bouquet of phony foliage with it. When another one lowered from the top ledge of the window, I slammed it shut and recoiled into a dark corner of my room.

My breath was heavy. "Shit! How many spiders _live_ at my house?"

All of the things that had been piling up let themselves spill out of my eyes as tears. I cried and cried until I was all dried up. My face felt salty.

I was tired on tip-toeing over eggshells for other people.

If Jared still wanted me (which he probably did, because why would he randomly stop now) I would go out with him. End of story. Decision made. Done. Over.

Maybe I should re-think this.

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**Thanks for reviewing (I'm thanking in advance, because I know you will).**

**Please let me know what you think, because I'm really not sure about this update. I want your honest oppinion.**

**Should I write another chapter?**


	10. Unfathomable Combination

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AN

Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.  
**Diane Arbus**

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I own no one cept Myra.  
I'm not sure how confusing this is for the rest of you, cause I sorta lost a couple betas along the way, but I just want to clear up, the person who Myra met in the woods was Jacob. Therefore, he's now a part of this story, and therefore he gets a POV.  
_Italic _words are the ones Sam said earlier.  
Sorry, my sickness is really making me doubt my ablilty to clearly communicate these things through the story.

One last IMPORTANT thing; I'm going away this week so I won't be updating. Also; When I started posting this story I had 9 chapters written. _Now_, I have only 11 chapters written. I've fallen behind like crazy. I really need your support, now more than ever, to inspire me to continue writing this story. Please let me know what you think. Please review.

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Jacob's POV

_You need to talk to your imprint._

"Hey Myra. I uh... need to talk to you." Maybe if I framed my words around the ones Sam had spoken to me earlier, this would be easier.

"Kay, sure. What's up?

_You've got to tell her._

"I've got to tell you something."

"Oh, me first."

_You have to tell her about Jared._

"Something about Jared."

"Me too! I've got awesome news." So far so good.

_This stupid little charade you've got going on isn't working anymore. She's making you miserable, Jared miserable, his imprint miserable, and, most importantly, me miserable. _I'd leave that part out. _You're not allowed to spy on Jared with Myra anymore._

"I can't spy on Jared with you anymore." We'd been out watching him almost every night sicnce we'd met. Every night since I'd seen her spying on Jared in the bushes.

"Jake, it's not spying, it's- you know, it doesn't even matter anymore. That's what I'm trying to tell you. We don't have-"

_You're not meant to be friends, so you just don't have any 'friend chemistry'._

"I know; we don't have any friend chemistry."

"What?"

"We're not meant to be friends."

"Meant to? There is no 'meant to', there's only what is, and what isn't. And what are you even talking about?"

_And she should know that she's not meant to be with Jared._

"And you should know that you're not- er... that is... I don't want you to keep going after Jared. I think that would be best for everyone."

"Excuse me?"

_It's never going to happen if you don't man up. Your relationship with Myra is _never_ going to happen if you don't man up._

"It's never gunna happen- no wait-"

"EXCUSE ME? Are you trying to tell me that I'm not good enough for him, or something? That I can't like whomever I want? That you have _any _influence over what I can and can't do? You have like...none, nope, nada, _no _spot in my life..." I could see her struggling for word until she finally settled on "so there."

The little Sam in my head was failing me. Scared of seeing her anger further, I let out a quiet "I thought I was your friend at least...Really? None?"

"No, don't you remember? We're not 'compatible' as friends, and now I guess I can see why."

I tried to tell her that I was just trying to help. And really I was, all I wanted to do was keep her from getting hurt, which was exactly what would happen if she further got her hopes up for a relationship with Jared.

"Really? You're trying to help me? How?"

I tried to keep my voice as level as possible, "I just know for a fact that there is _no _chance that Jared will ever ask you out. I'm 100% sure of it." I took a deep breath and naively waited for her to fall into my arms, crying about how I was right, how sad she was that we'd fought, how we should get together, and how, one day, we'd get married and have beautiful babies.

"You're sure? 100%?" There was skeptisizm in her voice, as if she thought she knew something that I didn't, but I just kept saying to myself 'Give it a minute to sink in, she'll realize you're right, that she's sad that you fought...yada yada'

"Yes, 100%." I reassured.

"Well then, I guess you're 100%_ stupid_, because he already did." She turned around and walked away. Away from the bench where she's been sitting, away from my arms, and away from our beautiful babies.

Wait, he already did?

"Shit."


	11. What I Am

**AN**

**So, I lied, but it wasn't my fault. I thought that my train wasn't going to be getting in til much later, and I also thought that I should write a couple more chapters before I posted again, but I settled when I finally finished the entire story scheme. I now know almost exactly how it will end, unless my characters decide to take it their own way like Kim did when I wrote Ch. 12.**

**Today's title quote really has no meaningful connection to the story like the others. I was looking for a good one and came across this;  
**_I would love to be what I like to love what I am. ~Orion_**  
which made no sense to me. So I just had to put it in.**

**And without any futher adeu (or whatever) I give you the much anticipated (by me at least) and my favorite chapter so far, Chapter 11.**

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Jared's POV

I stepped out of the car, and walked around to open the door for my date, but she had already gotten out.

"Your foot seems better. How do you feel?" She asked.

I told her it felt much better. My leg was still sore and probably partially broken when I'd picked her up. Jacob had mauled me earlier when I'd confirmed that I was taking Myra out to dinner.

She leaned into me as we walked into the restaurant. I told the hostess my name and she led us to our table. When we got there I pulled her aside, cancelling some of the more romantic and extravagant plans I had made for when I was bringing Kim. She told me I would still be charged for them, which I suppose was fair.

"This is a nice place," she noticed, probably feeling slightly underdressed.

"You look lovely," I told her to calm her down. She tried to hide her emerging smile. She was genuinely ecstatic over such a small complement. She seemed to light up, the way I had felt when Kim had one day accidentally told me she liked my eyes. It almost made me regret saying anything. I wasn't here to actually date her, just to try to convince her that Kim and I were right for each other. Then...maybe that would help.

We both placed our orders; mine at least three times as large as hers. It was probably the best time to start this conversation. Or maybe over dessert. That might make it easier.

My 'we need to talk' was overlapped by her 'well this is fun'. Her smile dropped, and so did my idea that this might actually go well.

She giggled nervously. "'We need to talk'?" she quoted me, "that sounds bad," another nervous chuckle, "Kinda like you wanna break up with me already." The anxious laughter made her seem a little crazy. I had to be soft about this. I didn't want to hurt her, especially with Jacob's wolf ability to review everything I was doing later. Not to mention, she was Kim-my gorgeous magnificent faultless star-Kim's best friend. Hurting a girl's best friend was not the best way to win her heart. Technically, neither was dating her best friend. And as much as it hurt me, Myra thought that this was a date.

"Look, Myra," I started.

"Yes?" The look on her faced showed that she was about to hang on my every word.

"I think that we both need to clear up what's going on here," I phrased it so that she would hopefully understand what I meant.

It obviously didn't work, because she then asked me what I meant.

I took a minute to gather my thoughts. "This date isn't really a...date." She gave me a confused look. I told her that I had originally planned to take Kim out, but she continuously rejected me because of her best friend. "So I asked you here so that we could figure this out."

Her breathing slowly became heavier. I wasn't sure if she was getting really mad or having a panic attack. I thought about looking through her purse for an inhaler, but very quickly discarded the idea.

"I've got you're drinks," the waitress came by our table, "who's the iced tea, and who's the milkshake?"

Myra's panic-attack-style breathing, kept up, and all I could manage was an "umm..."

"Is she alright? Should I like...call an ambulance?"

"I think maybe you should." I was thinking about how Jacob would flip shit when he found out she'd ended up in the hospital, when she suddenly stood up, took the milkshake from the extremely anxious and now surprised waitress, and dumped it on my head. How cliché. I wiped the chocolate out of my eyes, and ran after her.

She had a bit of a head start considering I was stopped at the front of the restaurant to pay, but I could catch up to her easily. It didn't help that the girl at the front was so obviously going extra slow, and stopping occasionally to give me dirty looks. I deserved them, but I was anxious to find her, and I'd get enough of those later this evening.

It wasn't hard to follow her scent to the back of a building a bit down the street.

She was sitting against the bricks with her knees pulled up to her chest.

I sat down beside her, and put my arm around her to comfort her. She didn't push me away, just continued crying.

"I'm sorry I ruined our sorta-kinda-date like this. It's just, we don't belong together. I have to be with Kim, and you have to be with-" I caught myself. Telling her that Jacob had imprinted on her or that they were fated to be together would be crossing the final line. "You'll find someone; someone better for you than I am."

"I hate _meant to_s and fate and all that crap."

"Sometimes fate really does know best."

She smiled. "I wish fate had told me eleven years ago that we weren't going to happen." Eleven years? "Then I wouldn't've done all that crazy shit to get your attention."

We spend another hour at least talking. She told me about the stuff she'd done; buying new clothes, going to events just because I'd be there, leaving notes in my locker (she knew the combination), and all the normal things, but weird stuff too; constantly walking in front of me at school (she'd read online that it subconciously embedded her into my mind or something), pretending to sell newspapers and chocolates, so that she could come up to my house, and trying to get her mother to name a brand of crackers after me.

"You've got to think that I'm _so_ weird," she said.

"Nah, it's all in the past," the whole thing didn't bother me as much as it probably should have.

"Not that far in the past," she corrected me, "I've been following you around with...well, for the past few weeks."

I knew she meant Jacob. I wanted to endorse him, but I didn't think that it was the right time.

"There was this one time," the stories kept coming. I couldn't blame her. All she wanted was for me to finally notice all the work she'd put into her crush for me. And it couldn't do much harm now that we were clear that I didn't like her and she seemed mostly over me, "that I painted a picture of you and I, in front of my dream house, and tried to send it to you, but a week later I got a letter from the postman that he'd liked it so much that he'd decided to keep it."

"Wow, it must have been good."

"But, I mean, that can't be legal. And I was in fifth grade, so it _couldn't_ have been _that_ good."

Something then came to my mind. "What about the shoes?" Her look of confusion caused me to explain, "In elementary school, someone stole a pair of my shoes from my cubby, and there was a little folded card with a heart on it instead. Was that you?"

"No," she said as if she were still thinking about it, "no, it wasn't."

"Well, maybe it was Kim, trying to steal them _for_ you?" I was grasping at straws, trying to revive the happy mood, which I'd effectively killed.

"No, that doesn't seem like something she would do. She always hated you." Ouch. "We should get going; it's getting late...and cold."

"Okay," I said leading her back to the car.

"Jared?" she said, hesitant to get into the vehicle.

"What is it?"

"I know that you don't like me and all, but...it's kinda always been a dream...well what I mean is...could I...well...kinda like a...goodnight kiss?"

I gave her a look like one would give a child trying to get out of their bedtime.

"Well, it was worth a shot," she said in a tone that was pleasant enough for me to deduce that there were no hard feelings between us.

When I dropped her off and her home I gave her a kiss on the cheek. She lightly punched me in the arm, saying "Hey, no cheating on Kim." I smiled. "I'm serious. You hurt her, I'll kill you." I watched her until she was inside her house, and the door was shut.

When I turned around Jacob was in front of me.

Oh, crap.

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**Long, eh?**

**Please review. Seriously. I...how can I ask you any more cencerly? Just, please.**


	12. The Only Truth That Sticks

**AN**

**Betrayal is the only truth that sticks –Author Miller**

**Thanks to everyone previously mensioned, as well as AttackOftheNerdling, crazyreaderduh, machdalena, and alicecullenisrealinmyworld. Remember, don't Fav without Alerting, and don't Alert without reviewing.**

**Also, this chapter is quite a bit shorter than the last, get over it. The next one is rediculously short. So short, I should probably post it with another one like I did way back when, but I won't. Unless, I get 5 reviews on this chapter. So for all you Subscribers out there, REVIEW! And everyone else too.**

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Kim's POV

Twenty minutes later, I could no longer deny what I had seen. It was possible the worst thing to happen ever. My heart shattered into a million pieces.

I could've just pretended, pretended to not have seen it. I could've just ignored it, but what good would that have done? It still would've happened.

Bryce Roman had written another _Fangl Warden_ novel.

Since when was a trilogy not enough? Why did everyone have to hop aboard the Saga Train? There's a point in every story where it just needs to stop.

I read the back. It looked like crap, and it would probably only take me three nights to read. I bought it anyways.

I probably could've spent another hour in that bookstore, but that wasn't why I was in Port Angela's anyways.

I was there for my bi-annual wardrobe replacement surgery. Technically I was seven months early, but I really wanted some nice clothes for when I finally agreed to go out with Jared.

The idea still made me squeal a little on the inside. I was finally going to go out with a boy. But not just any boy; one who could make me laugh and smile, who was super hot, and who, most importantly, really cared about _me_.

And if Myra didn't like it, she could-

Well, that part still shook me; losing Myra. But the whole 'I'm ditching my best friend, Myra, for some guy' was starting to seem more like 'Myra was blowing the whole thing out of proportion from the start and _she's_ the one who ruined our friendship'. I shouldn't've had to be chasing her around when I hadn't even done anything wrong...yet.

But the operation was not going well. My vitals were down, meaning I hadn't even bought one thing yet, except the book. Also, I was hungry.

Something about the next restaurant I passed caught my attention. I was probably underdressed, but my failure at shopping during the day had left me with enough money for a nice meal. Besides, if I didn't spend it, I'd just have to give it back to my mother at the end of the day.

The waitress approached me as soon as I entered, "Oh, look who's back. You know how long it's gunna take me to clean that-"

She was interrupted when the hostess pulled her aside. "It's not even the same girl you moron!" Then she turned to me, "Table for one?"

How strange.

"No, I think I'd better just leave," I responded, still confused about why the other waitress had been so mad at me.

"Oh," the disappointment in her voice sounded fake, "are you sure?"

Maybe it was rude, but I turned around and left without answering.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. It was my mother.

"Hi honey. I'm almost in Port Angela's. Where are you?"

"I'm just across the street from that shoe store you really like."

"Kay, hun, I'll be there in two minutes."

When her car pulled up I hopped into the passenger seat.

"Kim?"

"Yeah?"

"Is that that Jared boy's truck?"

I turned my head back to the parking lot of the restaurant. I told her it was and asked how she'd known.

"Well, he's been parked in front of our house enough times that I should."

Great. I'd really hoped that she hadn't noticed that.

"Is that why you were over by that restaurant? Out with Jared? You know, you could've called me and told me not to come and gotten a ride home with him. I wouldn't've minded."

I let out an annoyed sigh, and turned up the music, which turned out to work against me, because it was on the classical/annoying clarinet music channel; my mom's favourite.

I tried to tune it out as best I could.

By the time we drove into La Push I could no longer take it. "Mom, I'm going to walk from here kay?"

She looked concerned and a little confused, but agreed.

Without the ringing of evil harpies screaming into my ear, the questions rolled in; was that really Jared's truck? What was he doing at a fancy restaurant? Was he with his friends? A girl? Why was that waitress yelling at me? Did she mistake me for someone else?

The only one I knew for sure was that it really was Jared's truck at that restaurant. But that didn't even have to mean that it was _him_ there. Maybe he'd lent it to someone.

Passing Myra's house, I noticed no one was home. I'm not sure what compelled me to stay and watch, let alone hidden in the bushes, but nevertheless I did, and nevertheless, I saw when Jared's truck pulled into her driveway, I saw when he walked around the front of the vehicle and let her out, and I saw when he kissed her on the cheek.

After that, the water building up in my eyes kept me from seeing anything else. I really thought that this time was different; that Jared was different. I thought that he'd really meant all the words he'd spoken to me; that they weren't just empty. I ran through the forest to my special place; the beach where Myra and I used to play. We'd had so many memories there, that not even that awful encounter with that awful Jared a week ago could change its importance to me.

I didn't notice until a while after I got there that it was all burnt. Not in the traditional way of course, cause it's tough to burn a beach, but all the trees around it were scorched, and the rocks were covered in ash.

The fact that my safe haven had been ruined kept me from questioning the unlikelihood that it would actually naturally burn like that, and from noticing that there was a message; words carved into the ash on the rock; words that needed to be read; words that, by sitting there and crying, I was effectively erasing.

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**Should I write another chapter?**


	13. Epilogue

**AN**

**So here's a little something that is probably not needed in the story at all, but once I get an idea like this, it doesn't go away. Also, I just finished _The Ghosts of Ashbury High_, and if anyone here has read that series, you know why this chapter is styled this way. If you have not GO PICK UP _THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENT_ RIGHT NOW! Quick, run! Don't even finish this chapter (Although you probably could, because it's likely shorter than this AN.**

**Thanks to Kimmmz who has thusfar left 12 reviews (I think) and she just rocks.**

**I would've posted a giant long chapter right after this one, but to be honest, it's not written yet. That's right, my writing has finally caught up to me...or my posting has finally caught up to my lack of writing (that's more true). You can have this now, and the next one on Thursday.**

**Again I apologise for what you are about to read.**

**Claimer: I own everything in this chapter. YAY!**

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An Excerpt from Bryce Roman's Fangl Warden

Epilogue

After we showed Rita that we had saved the clarinet, things got better, that is to say, quieter.

With the knowledge that she had something she was good at; something she could show the world whenever she felt like, the talent quest stopped. No more juggling, fitness breakouts, or midnight firewood chopping. The untrained sounds of her flavour-of-the-week instruments stopped, and Minerva retook the tasks of cooking and baking.

And as for me and Silvia Karot, we ended up together after all. I guess jealousy really _is_ the best fix. My date with another girl showed her not only that she wanted me, but also that I was socially acceptable to be with.

And one day, in the not too distant future, we'll get married, have kids, and give them names like Jules Minerita Opal May June Karot-Warden.

So for everyone out there having love problems, here's my advice: find another date, and go for the jealousy angle. And along the way, you just might find you half-sister's clarinet.

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**Confused?**

**I'm sure you are, all 28 of you. So let me clear this up; this is NOT the epilogue and NOT even really directly part of this story. This is an EXCERPT from the novel that Kim bought in the previous chapter. Yes, it's stupid, but it's the coolest way to show you where she gets her next idea. YOU're reading it, because SHE's reading it. Get it? Just focus on the jealousy parts and you'll be fine, and if you absolutely still don't get it, just disregard this chapter all together, it gets normal again next chapter.**


	14. Give Me My Roses Now

**AN**

**Disclaimer: If you recognise them, they're not mine.**

**Don't strew me with roses after I'm dead.**  
**When Death claims the light of my brow,**  
**No flowers of life will cheer me: instead**  
**You may give me my roses now!**  
**- Thomas F. Healey**

**I trust you all recovered well from the shipwreck that was Chapter 13. Guess it really is unlucky. I really want to know if _anyone_ understood what I was doing, so please let me know if you got it.**

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Myra's POV

I didn't think she was home, but sure enough when I knocked on the door I heard her feet quickly running down the stairs and across the front hall to greet me at the front of her house. She didn't even look at me. As soon as the door was opening she turned around and ran the other way.

"I'm not quite ready yet. Just give me a minute," she cried back at me.

"Kim?" I called. I heard her feet stop. She came back to the entrance; her face a mix of disappointed, confused, and angry. She'd been expecting someone else.

I could tell she didn't really want to talk to me, no doubt eager to continue getting ready, but she still asked what I was doing there.

"I came because we need to talk. And to pass along a message."

"I don't really have time to talk, because, as you can see, I'm going somewhere." I was taken aback by her tone. That was an attitude normally used when telling the bitchy girls who make fun of us to piss off, so I'd never been on the receiving end before. I didn't have time to recover before she continued, "But what's this message about?"

There was undoubtedly uncertainty in my voice when I stated that it was from Jared. At the mention of his name her face transformed, but not the way it should've. It didn't light up, but recoiled, as if his name were death itself, and I, the grim reaper. But she smiled a crooked smile, as if she knew a way around it, and wanted to smite me with it.

"Oh _that_ message. Well, I already got _that_ message. Loud and clear, thank you."

I followed her to her room, and sat on her bed as she continued to get ready. "Where are you going, anyway?"

"None of your business."

I needed to find a way to get her guard down so I could figure out what was wrong. My eyes wandered to her bedside table. "You got the new _Fangl Warden_?" I asked, hoping to change to a subject that we had once been able to talk about for hours.

"Yeah, I finished it."

"How was it?"

"Very," she stopped to find her words, "Helpful. Informative."

Informative wasn't the word I would use to describe any of the other books in the series. They were mainly just crap literature that was really easy to obsess over.

The doorbell chimed. I thought she was going to ignore it, as we usually did when someone used the bell instead of knocking (our families' secret way of weeding out people we didn't want to talk to from close friends who knew the secret) but she turned to me, said "you're going to have to go now," and ran downstairs. I ran after her and found her with Graig Lott in the living room.

"Is she coming too?" Graig asked. While he had come a long way from wearing Wheeled Rovers shirts to school and being the most picked on kid in the class to becoming 'Hott Lott' (as the girls say), he was still kind of a geek at heart. Kim hit the back of his head with the magazine she was conveniently holding, messing up his newly styled (and washed!) chocolate-brown hair.

I pulled her aside as Hott Lott scurried of to the mirror in the front hall to check his hair. "Listen," I said, "I just wanted to tell you that I talked with Jared, and he wanted me to ask you to meet him this afternoon at _The Timeless Harpy._" She scowled.

"What? Too much of a coward to just tell me yourself? You have to send me all the way over there so that he can rub it in my face _for _you? I get it, okay? You win. Jared is yours."

"What are you talking about? I don't even want him anymore." Well, I did. Just, not as much as before. And not enough to be fighting with Kim anymore. I just had to prove that to her.

"You think I'm stupid?" she asked, and honestly, right now, I did. "I saw the kiss. I know it happened. He _kissed _you."

Oh. That's what this was about.

"So, you can just leave," she said to me then turned to Graig, "Where are the roses? Didn't you bring roses?"

Graig gave a shrug. Kim gave him a look then stormed off into her dining room. She came back with a bouquet of flowers, no doubt from her dining room table, and showed them into his hands. "Just hold these a minute while I go get my shoes," she commanded. I'd never seen her so driven, upfront, and...well, rude.

"Are they really necessary?" He called to her, holding the flowers away from himself as if they had some horrible contagious disease.

"The flowers or the shoes?" Kim joked.

"The flowers," Graig answered seriously. Kim got solemn again. I guess Mr. Hott does Nott Gott a Lott of Thoughtt or Whatnott up in the Spott we call a brain (now that's funny).

"Of course they are! Do you think that Joanna's going to want to go out with a guy who doesn't even give his dates flowers?" she looked back at me, "What are you still doing here?"

Her words were still sinking in. Graig was using Kim to impress Joanna? And Kim was okay with it? Did she think that this was the best that she could do? She was worth so much more than this. We would have to work to repair her self-esteem. Or maybe, she was using Graig too; a mutual usage. And this mutual usage (a term I would continue to use because it sounds super cool) was supposed to help her make Jared jealous. "But that's so stupid," I said to myself, "she could have Jared in an instant if she would only ask him. He completely infatuated with her. Wait, why am I saying this to myself? I need to tell Kim."

She was no longer there.

I ran outside and yelled after her, but I knew that she wouldn't be able to hear me from inside the Lottmobile. I couldn't do anything else today. So homeward bound I set off.


	15. Love and Hate at the Same

**AN**

**Disclaimer: I own Myra, Graig, and the resturant full of people, but none of the cool characters.**

**"Love sees sharply, hatred sees even more sharp, but Jealousy sees the sharpest for it is _love and hate at the same _time"  
****-Arab Proverb**

**Big thanks to VampireGirl17898, Reading Kiwi, XxXWolvesInTheNightXxX, JellyBeane, and lottie14b, as well as all of my previous reviewers.**

_**If you are still confused, PM me NOW! Do not continue onto this chapter until you understand everything that has happened thusfar.**_

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Jacob POV

I was sitting at a table, and Jared sat across from me. There weren't many people around us; I don't know what the owner was thinking when he named this restaurant _The Timeless Harpy._ Plenty of people knew about it, and where it was, if that's what he was going for. However, few actually dared to enter, fearing what they'd find.

The only people around me were the petite redhead in the corner, who was reading a book and barley eating her salad, a woman trying to control her two young boys, and a lovesick fool waiting for his soul mate to arrive.

"Hey, lovesick fool, how long are we going to wait here?" I asked Jared.

"However long it takes for her to get here. She may be taking time to get ready or something. Maybe Myra hasn't even delivered the message yet," he tried to reason.

"Can I get you boys something?" the waitress asked again.

"Just another coffee," replied Jared.

"You know, this isn't a coffee shop. Frankly, I've tasted the coffee here, and it sucks. So, you can order some real food, or leave," she snipped.

"Hey," I stood up as I yelled at her, "take it easy on him, he just got stood up." I saw her expression change to remorse, then to shock. Then I felt something slam into the side of my face. I turned and confirmed my suspicions that it was Jared's fist.

I was going to punch him back, but his face changed dramatically. "She's here," he said, voice full of excitement. "Go, go, go."

I didn't really feel like going along with his plan (I sit around with Jared till his date gets here, then hide, so she can't see me) after that, but when he urgently and desperately pointed to a table around the back I obediently scurried over and sat facing away from my previous table, so Kim couldn't recognise me.

When the door opened, I noticed something not right about her scent; someone was with her.

Against my orders (not alpha's orders, so screw that) I turned around to watch the scene unfold. She had entered the restaurant with a guy; Graig Something I think. It was obvious that they were on a date.

I couldn't tell if Jared was confused, or just outright furious. Kim wasn't making eye contact with either of us, but wasn't nervous about us looking at her either. She refused the waitress when she tried to direct them to a back room, opting to sit where we could see her.

I slowly moved towards Jared. I wanted to keep him from doing anything rash, like I had wanted (and partially gone through with) when I'd found out that he was talking out Myra. But it was too late, he was already walking towards them.

"Oh, hey Jared," said Graig, "funny running into you here."

"Not so funny when you consider that I asked Kim to meet me here," Jared snapped at him.

"What?" Graig looked back and forth between Kim and Jared, looking for an explanation.

"Nope," Kim ineffectively lied, "I don't remember getting any sort of message from you, except maybe '_bug off, I'm gunna kiss your best friend on the cheek now, because I'm not into you anymore_'." Jared's face collapsed into understanding and desperation. "No, Hot- I mean Graig, just decided that we should try going someplace strange and different, right Graig?"

"Sure," he said in his _whatever-gets-me-laid_ voice.

"Oh, Kim," Jared dropped to his knees and the desperation in his voice was even making me feel sorry for him. "Please, just listen to me. It wasn't like that. I know you must feel hurt or betrayed, but Kim-my stunning brilliant perfect everything-Kim, I promise-"

"Look," Graig interrupted, just as Kim was starting to get that infatuated and trusting look back into her eyes, "I don't know what went on here, but it looks like you had your chance and missed it."

Jared stood up, and towered above Graig, who looked like he was starting to regret his words already. "You're right, you don't know what happened, so why don't you just mind your own business," Jared yelled at him before pushing him hard enough to propel him across the room and into in the wall (well, not into the wall, he didn't break it or anything, but still, ouch).

"Oh, my God!" shrieked Kim.

I ran over and grabbed Jared, "Come on man, calm down." He wasn't usually the type to fall to the mercy of his temper, that was definitely Paul.

We had begun to create a scene. The mother had quickly rushed her young boys out of the restaurant. The collage kids had one foot out the door, deciding whether to stay or flee as well. The quiet redhead however, was walking determinedly straight towards us.

"What the hell is this?" she yelled at us.

I looked at her with what I'm sure was a guilty look on my face, looking for words explain this impossible situation. Maybe it was just me, but I noticed then, that while her eyes flitted between Jared and Kim, they never landed on me.

"Well, we ju-"

"What the hell is wrong with you Jared?" she cut me off, which confirmed in my mind that she was either blind in one eye and de in one ear, ignoring me, or I was irrelevant to her.

"I thought that you were thought with this one," she gestured to Kim, "and on to that other one."

"I knew it!" Kim screeched at Jared. She thought she meant Myra, and she probably did.

"No, Kimmie."

"Don't call me that!"

"And to think I put all that trouble into getting rid of the other one." We all froze.

"What?" came out as a group question.

Her voice was filled with anger and desperation as she said, "Come on, Jared! I knew from the beginning that we were meant to be together! I tried so many times to get your attention, but I had to fight against your girl of the week _and_ Myra; corrupting the postal system, stealing your shoes, leaving you notes. Nothing."

"Wait, are you that Alora girl that's been spreading rumors that we're together?"

"Alysha!" she screamed, "My name is Alysha!"

"What did you mean _getting rid of_?" I tried to keep calm, but I'm sure she heard the threat in my voice.

"Setting the beach on fire, and leaving that threat written on the rock seemed to work well enough for Kim, although apparently not, but Myra didn't get the message, so I had to make sure she was taken care of permanently...so I had her house set on fire...while she's in it of course."

I snapped. She was going to hurt Myra. She had, or was currently hurting my Myra. I jumped at her, phasing mid leap.

"Crap!" Jared screamed, as both girls just plain screamed.

"I love you, stand back." I heard Jared say to Kim while I was biting at the Aldonna girl's leg.

The next thing I knew, he had knocked me across the empty restaurant and he pinned me down.

_Jacob, this is a public place and you need to calm down! This girl isn't important right now, we need to get to Myra._

I tried to get away so I could run to her.

_You can't run thought the streets like that. Phase back NOW!_

"Now you have no pants, you idiot," he yelled at me the moment we were human again.

"Give me your leggings," I approached Kim. She was trying her best to move herself away from myself and Jared. "You're wearing a dress, just give me the leggings!" My yelling was scaring her, and my nudity probably didn't help.

She stripped off her leggings and threw them at me, then tried to run to the bathroom. Jared stopped her, saying "You're coming too, I can't leave you here with this psycho." He tossed her over his shoulder when she tried to protest.

We ran past Althea on our way to the exit. She was unconscious. It made Kim scream, seeing all the blood. She tried to call an ambulance, but we couldn't let any cops see the mess we'd made of the restaurant, or there would be a lot of unanswerable questions. Besides, she deserved to die.

All that my mind was focusing on was getting to Myra's house as soon as possible, but in the background I heard Jared calling Sam, and asking him to bring the girl to the hospital.

I cut into the forest. I could run faster on all fours.

I smelled the smoke before I could see it, and before I could see the house, I heard the fading screams.

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**What do you think? The end is coming soon.**

**Is my plot crazy?  
Are my characters likeable?**

**Should I write another chapter?**


	16. What's Left

AN

**Before you read this, understand that I don't mean to offend anyone with anything that may happen. The opinions of the characters are not reflective of my own opinions.**

**Disclaimer: You know who's not mine.**

**A memory is **_**what is left**_** when something happens and does not completely unhappen. ~Edward de Bono**

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_I dreamt that I was in a car with my best friend's mother and sister, a boy from school who was notorious for drinking so much at parties that he'd often throw up, his step-brother, and my English teacher. I think I was lying down. No one would tell be where we were going. "Just breathe," they kept telling me, trying to calm me down, but I couldn't be calm until I knew where we were going. They gave me different answers, "an amusement park" "a birthday party" "Canada" "the hospital" "heaven". I began to cry. The saltiness in my tears burned my face._

When I awoke, there were bright lights all around me, shining in my eyes. My skin began to heat up. The light was moved back and a person stood behind it. He had been holding it in front of me. I tried to scowl at him, but it hurt my face.

"Hey there Myra. I'm Nurse Daniels, and you're in the Seattle General Hospital. You were in a pretty bad fire, so it might hurt to move for a while. Just take it easy," he told me. "There are some people who want to see you."

Two adults came in first, one male and one female. I didn't recognise them, but they were calling me _baby_ and _princess_ and _pumpkin_, so I guessed that they were my parents. A girl came in with them. Was she my sister? She looked to be about my age. Smallish, nice facial features, long black hair. She seemed nervous, like a girl with ghosts following her. She looked like she wanted to talk to me, but not with other people in the room.

My 'parents' didn't visit much after that, but I didn't hold it against them, partially because I didn't feel like I knew them and partially because they seemed like busy people.

I had two new visitors instead, but they didn't come in together. The first one was a very tall man who had darker skin, like mine, and short black hair. He didn't stay long. He looked like he was looking for someone rather than there to see me. I thought the second boy was the same as the first, but when he came closer, I saw that he was a bit shorter and more muscular. He was nicer too. He sat with me for hours and held my hand. I wished he would talk; say something to help me remember who he was. I wanted to ask them their names and how they knew me, but I couldn't bring myself to hurt them like that. I wouldn't want to be forgotten.

I started to remember things in little pieces. My memories of the fire scared me at first.

_I was trapped, flames blocking my only exits. The smoke was filling my lungs, so I fell to the ground._

I began to remember the people too; Jacob first, then Kim, who was not my blood sister, but my sister in just about every other way, then my parents and Jared.

My room usually always had someone in it, because they would never be in at the same time. When Kim came in she would whisper things to me about monsters, blood, and harpies, and I wondered why she was saying these things, but I was always zoning in and out, and I thought it rude to ask a question about something she might have already told me. Then whenever Jacob was coming towards the room she would tell me to be careful then run off.

Jacob would hold my hand mostly. We got to talking, like before I ruined our friendship, or he did...there were still some things I couldn't quite remember.

_I couldn't stop coughing. It was strangely violent. I was passing in and out of consciousness. The flames were closing in, but I couldn't stop coughing long enough to move._

One day before bed I had a new visitor. She wore a hospital gown like me, but a different colour, so she must have been from a different ward. She was moving strangely; limping like she was injured and very weak. She came closer to me. I wanted to know what she had to say, but a doctor and a security guard came in and pulled her away before she could tell me. She shook her long red hair, whipping them with it as they pulled her away. She never came back, so I may have dreamt that.

A few days later I was feeling much better; I was remembering most of my life and was also able to focus on conversations for longer than 14 seconds.

Kim decided that this would be a good time to narrate to me everything that happened during the past few months. She did a pretty good job about not being bias, or at least that's what I thought. I wouldn't know entirely until my memories caught up to me. Although I found it hard to believe I got that crazy over Jared, the memories that I had of Elementary School matched up, so I trusted that she was telling the truth.

I didn't know what to think when she got to the part about Jacob turning into a giant wolf. I knew she wasn't the crazy type, or the type to make something like that up.

"Jared too," she told me.

As if he had sensed us talking about him, Jacob had appeared.

"Do you want me to get rid of him for you?"

I told her no, because even though I half believed her, I still trusted Jacob.

I decided that I wanted to ask him about it, but I didn't know how to phrase it.

"Jake, are you..." I struggled, "Kim was telling me some things about the day of the accident." I paused. "About when you were in the restaurant."

He asked me to trust him, and told me that he would tell me everything later. Apparently the time wasn't right.

I did trust him completely, but I wanted answers, and I wanted to be able to give Kimmie some answers, so I told him that I was scared, and that I couldn't trust him until he gave me the truth.

"The first thing you have to understand is that you are completely safe with me. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm never going to hurt you."

"I trust you," I reassured him, and he gave me this look saying _didn't you just tell me you didn't trust me?_ He continued anyways.

"You know the legends of our tribe, of the Spirit Warriors and the Cold Ones. They're true. Well, they're mostly true. There aren't any true Spirit Warriors in our tribe, but there are warriors nonetheless. You see, what happens to us instead..." he proceeded to tell me all about the werewolves and vampires. He told me how they became shape shifters, about the heated body temperature and accelerated healing.

"And that's it? That's the truth? The whole truth?" I asked.

He got a pained look on his face. There _was_ something else, and he didn't want to tell me. I didn't understand what he thought could be more nerve-racking to tell beyond what he had already said.

I was surprised at how much seeing him in this confused and upset state was hurting me. I reached out to him wanting to stop his pain. "What is it, babe?"

I froze; surprised that I had added a pet name at the end of my question. I could feel my cheeks reddening. I was dying of embarrassment, and the worst part was that Jacob was just smiling. No, the worst part was that I loved that he was smiling, because I loved his smile.

I spent a while just looking at his face, really looking. It's strange that even though people see things all the time, they rarely ever take time to just look at things. It's strange what you see when you spend time at it, sometimes it may even scare you. I was definitely scared by what I found.

I suddenly realized that while I had been studying his face for a couple of minutes, he's been studying mine for days. I also realized that due to the fact that there was no mirror in my bathroom, I hadn't looked at myself for over a week; since before the fire, and before the skin grafting surgery. If my face looked anything like my arm, I didn't want anyone to be looking at me.

"Well, _babe_," he said, trying to make a joke or a segway into something else, but I wasn't in the mood for jokes now. He reached out to caress my face, but I pulled away, jumped out of bed and began running down the hall. I had to find a mirror. I ducked into the women's washroom, but there were none there either.

I ran towards the elevator, now knowing that there wouldn't be any in this entire ward, as if everyone was working against me.

Jacob was catching up to me, calling out my name. I managed to get the elevator door closed before he could open it.

I ran out of the elevator. Jake was still on my trail; he had taken the stairs. _If I can just duck into the women's washroom I'll be safe_, I thought.

_The smoke pulled me in to darkness, and the pain brought me back. The fire was close now, so close that it was touching my leg. My pants didn't do much to protect me; they were consumed faster than I thought they would be. The fire crept up my body._

I couldn't breathe. This is what people had been looking at? Most of my left side; my arm, shoulder, neck, face, looked rough, scarred, and discoloured.

I was wrong about the women's room stopping Jacob from following me. He was right there beside me, holding me as I cried. I didn't want him to see me anymore, but I couldn't bear the thought of him leaving either.

"Oh, Myra," he said, tilting my head up so he could look me in the eye, "you're beautiful." I was still crying. "Nothing is going to change that," he told me, "And nothing is going to change the fact that I love you, and I would do anything for you."

_I knew that if I blacked out again I probably wouldn't wake up, but I almost just wanted it to end. _

_Something fell on me. I would've thought that it was a piece of the ceiling, but it felt like a blanket, except for the fact that it was wet. I was lifted off of the ground. The arms that held me were just as hot as the fire. They pulled me out of the flames. I heard the siren coming. There was yelling all around me, people were arguing. I cried again when the strong arms lay me down on the bed. I wanted them to stay around me. "Just breathe," I was told by a comforting voice beside me, so I did. But then I passed out._

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**I hope I did a decent job portraying the fire and thereafter. I'm really nervous about this chapter, so please let me know what you think.**


	17. Cold

**AN**

**Epilogue aside, this will be the last chapter. So, there are some people I need to thank;**

**7Cerberus7  
alicecullenisrealinmyworld  
AttackOftheNerdling  
catk241  
Cesca  
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crazyreaderduh  
esyuen  
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ImDaMnShOrTaNdPrOuD  
Japanesegirl388  
****JellyBeane  
jblc  
kimmmz  
LivLifeForever  
lottie14b  
machdalena  
Maniacinthemaking  
nabela  
PuRpLeLuVeR28  
Reading Kiwi  
VampireGirl7898  
xxSillyWillyxx  
XxXWolvesInTheNightXxX**

**Wouldn'ta' been possible without ya'll.**

**As love without esteem is capricious and volatile; esteem without love is languid and cold.**  
**Jonathan Swift**

**Please Enjoy.**

* * *

I was never sad that I no longer felt the effects of the weather after my change. It was quite a convenient perk among the regrettable symptoms of the werewolf 'condition'. But just because I wasn't bothered by the weather doesn't mean that I couldn't tell what it was, or that I couldn't remember what was normal to wear in what weather. For instance, '_That'_ I thought, when I saw Myra arrive with Jared, '_is not normal for this weather.'_

She wore a black turtleneck sweater and a skirt that reached just past her knees, with tall black boots coming up to cover what the skirt didn't. She also had on huge sunglasses with her hair uncharacteristically falling over her face. It was a warm day; too warm for a full cover-up, but it wasn't the weather she had on her mind when she had dressed this morning.

I'd watched through Jacob's eyes as Myra had become more comfortable with her scars, and being around Jacob, but she still didn't like being out in public, and she still stood so that Jake would hold her right hand, not her left. But Jake was lucky; his relationship was well on its way. Pretty soon they would be regularly going out, kissing, moving in together, and starting a life, and my stunning lovely brilliantly-stubborn Kim and I hadn't even spoken in weeks. I still saw her, and knew that she was okay, but I missed the sound of her voice.

I knew she would be here today, but I worried every time that it started to drizzle that she would use it as an excuse to bail. The light wind and rain was depressing, and made the day seem like it should be colder than it was, providing the ideal cover for Myra.

It was the perfect day for a funeral.

"A famous writer once said 'We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give'," a man started his eulogy for his daughter, niece, student, or maybe just friend, "If that is true, then Alysha made a great life. She was the most giving person I've ever known. And judging from the nodding heads I see in front of me, it seems that many of you agree."

He continued with his story of her life. Everyone told their side. It felt strange to think that even though I'd only known her for a minute or two, I knew her better than anyone else there. I knew the side of her that she hid under the shield that everyone else thought they knew.

I wouldn't be sharing my account of her life however; these people wanted and deserved to hear only the best things.

For a while, Jake had wanted to tell them. He wanted revenge for what she had done to Myra. Only she was able to talk him out of it, in the end. That would only hurt her family, and, ultimately, he had gotten his revenge.

It wasn't the injuries alone that caused her decease, it was the infections she'd caught from sneaking out of her room, and being out and about when she should've been sleeping, but she wouldn't've been in the hospital at all if it weren't for Jake.

I smelled my sweet 'n fabulous, perfect angel Kim. It was my favourite smell. She was a couple rows in front of me. She stood near the edge, pushing herself away from the family, while trying to stay as close to Alysha as possible.

I knew that she blamed Jacob, and myself as well for being like him. She hated me and was scared of me. It was a wolf's worst nightmare.

I followed her when she prematurely left. I called out after her, and received some dirty glares from the mourners behind me.

I caught up to her easily. "Kim, can we talk?"

"No," was her reply.

"Well, we have to." She just kept walking. "We can do it on any terms you'd like; in a public place, from ten feet away, tossing paper airplanes with notes on them back and forth. We'll do it your way, but we really need to talk about it.

"How about we talk in a court of law?"

"Oh, Kimmie," her face became angry when I used the forbidden nickname, "it's actually kind of a secret. Like, a tribe secret. If you wanted, you could get one of the elders to explain it."

"What are you talking about?"

I moved in closer, not wanting anyone else to hear what I would say next, "The Quileute legends are true. We turn into wolves- _but_, only as protectors."

She processed what I had just said. The area around us was private enough; several hills hid us from anyone who would intrude on the situation. I leaned back down to her so I could whisper; they always took it better if you said it in a whisper, "Werewolves are real, but they're only real to keep everyone safe from The Cold Ones-vampires. Now, you don't have to freak out. You're not in any danger as long as I'm here." I was sure my pack mates would surely be jealous of my near perfect delivery of the 'imprint speech'.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she said, to my surprise. "The Spirit Warriors in the legends... Well, they're not..." she stumbled for words, then turned and stared to walk away.

I walked beside her. "Come on Kimmie," I received another evil glare, "you have such an advantage over the other im- people we've told. For God's sake, you already _know_ it's true! Don't make me feel like a fool. I _know _you_ know_, you just have to let yourself believe it."

After a minute, her face stared to whip through different emotions and states of thought. She bit her lip, and nodded her head. I wanted to kiss her so badly. My lips ached for hers. I saw her shoulders relaxed for the first time since...well, the first time. I was having strange urges to pick her up by the waist and spin her around like they do in the movies.

"Well..." she looked confused, then hit me with a strange response, "So do you change when the moon comes out, cause it's getting dark?"

"No-"

"But you're a wolf?" she cut me off.

"Yes, b-"

"A big one"

"Yes."

"Red?"

"Brown," I replied quickly, realizing that I wouldn't be able to give any in depth answers until she finished her mental list of questions.

"And you're all like this?"

"There's six of us," I answered truthfully, as Quil had recently entered the pack.

"But the elders know?"

"Most of 'em."

"Billy?"

"Yep."

"Harry?"

"Yep."

"Quil Sr.?"

"Yep." The words bounced back and forth between us faster than I'd've thought possible.

"And this is why you're so strong?"

"Yes."

"And hot?"

"Well," I faked laughed, "I was born a pretty attractive fella." I looked her in the eyes and smiled. I was happy to find her smiling back at me. It was a faint little sucker, but it was sure as hell there. I pretended to realize what she meant, "_Ooooh_, you meant," I laughed again, "you meant temperature."

Then, I heard a mysterious group of invisible singing angels descended from heaven. Oh, sorry, it wasn't angels, just Kim laughing at my lame joke. It sounded like angels though. Her laugh was beautiful.

She grabbed my hand. Her palm felt soft against mine; her skin was soft like silk. I watched our hands together, and when I glanced up at her eyes I saw that she was watching them too. Did she see how they fit like two pieces of a puzzle?

"So," she remembered what she was going to say, "let's say that you _are_ a werewolf, and that you _do _have all these secret super powers and stuff," I trusted that she did believe me, and that this was just an opening to some question, "Why tell me?"

I smiled. "This is the easiest one so far."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yep, super easy,"

"I dunno, you answered the other ones pretty fast." She could sense that I was stalling.

"Yep, it's really really easy."

"Well, go on then."

"I've told you," I paused for dramatic effect, "Because I love you."

Her eyes looked up and met my eyes, and before I knew it, her lips met my lips. They crashed into mine as her available hand was thrown around my neck. I put my other hand on the small of her back and pulled her up towards me.

I cannot do justice to her beauty or perfection with my prose, and my lovely Kim's faultless kiss cannot be expressed through words.

We were like that for some time, and...well, I'll just let Edmund Vance Cooke wrap it up:

_Kisses kept are wasted;_  
_Love is to be tasted._  
_There are some you love, I know;_  
_Be not loathe to tell them so._  
_Lips go dry and eyes grow wet_  
_Waiting to be warmly met._  
_Keep them not in waiting yet;_  
_Kisses kept are wasted._

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**So, there you have it.**

**The only thing left is an epilogue, which is completely up to you.**

**Should I do one of their engagements? Weddings? Years in the future, when they all have kids? Some strange mix of a couple of them? Prom? Any other ideas?**

**Review. You have two weeks to do so, cause I'm going to write it as soon as I get back from vacation.**


	18. Outside Of Ourselves, The Real Epilogue

**AN**

**Hope is the expectation that something _outside of ourselves_, something or someone external, is going to come to our rescue and we will live happily ever after.**  
**Dr. Robert Anthony**

**So here we are; the end of my very first story. So exciting. I'm not going to lie, this ending was hard to write, but I think it turned out well.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and a special shoutout to ALICESTAR100, kimmmz, caitness, and ImDaMnShOrTaNdPrOuD for reviews or Faving in the last chapter.  
Thanks also to LivLifeForever, cause she's just the bomb. (I threw a little something in there just for you.)**

**Without further adeau...**

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Eight Years Later

Myra's POV

A smile crept onto my face as I saw Jacob's beat-up old truck pull up into the parking lot. He'd fixed it up so that it ran fine, but knew that I loved its battered exterior.

"Hey, boyfriend," I greeted him as I hopped in the passenger's side, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.

"Hey, girlfriend," he replied, pulling me back over for a kiss much more favourable than its precedor. I loved the feel of his lips on mine. We kissed for a while longer, before I had the stupid idea to stop.

"We need to get to the toy store before they close. I don't want to have to rush at the last minute to get a gift for Dakota's birthday party tomorrow," I reasoned. I wouldn't be a quick task either. When it came to gifts for two-to-three-year-old girls we didn't always see eye to eye. Last year he'd wanted to buy her a gift from the discount plushie bin. I'd argued saying "that thing look like it's half human, half vampire, half wolf, and half cat, and a distinctive _lack_ of half unicorn, so it would have to be a 'no'." He then made it clear that if we ever had kids, Jared better buy them super expensive gifts too.

"How was the fitting?" Jake brought me out of my memoryland.

"Unfortunate," I turned away, rested my arm on the door, and dropped my head to my arm, "Why couldn't Kim just give us colours and let us pick our own dresses like some other brides do? The dress I have to wear is ridiculous."

"Well I think that it was a mutual decision between her and Jared that they wanted to plan everything down to the last flower petal, so that this time it would be special." Jared and Kim had already been married for just over three years, but it wasn't the big wedding they'd (yes Jared too) always dreamt of. When Kim found out she was pregnant at 21 (not too bad) they had to throw together a quick ceremony which was more about technicalities than celebration.

"I know _why_, I was just complaining," I snapped in a tone that I immediately regretted.

I reached over, and put my hand on his arm, "Sorry, babe."

"You know, sometimes I think that you save up all of your anger, and then only lash out at me because I have to forgive you." It was probably the truth, but by the look on his face I could tell I was already off the hook.

"You don't _have_ to forgive me," I challenged.

"Oh, but I do."

"And why's that?"

"Because I love you." Our eyes remained focused on each other. It was the kind of connection that made me shiver.

"Jacob!" I screamed, after I'd quickly let my vision scan the road in front of us. "Eyes on the road!"

The truck swerved back and forth. His left hand was madly fighting to steady the vehicle, and his right had shot out to keep me steady against my seat. Once he had stabled us, he pulled over to the side of the road. I assumed it was either for a quick breather or a romantic make out session, but both of my theories were discontinued when he got out of the car. He came around to my side, extending a hand to help me out.

"Jake, we have to get to the store-"

"Don't worry about it," he cut me off, "I already got her an expensive Barbie RV thing."

He sensed my hesitation and continued, "Don't worry, you'd love it; it's very pink."

"I _hate_ pink."

"But _Dakota_ loves pink." He was right. "Come on," he ushered me towards the forest.

Normaly I didn't like walking over intense terrains, but hiking, like so many other things, was infinitely better with Jacob. Whenever I fell or tripped, or pretended to, he was there to catch me. Even after so long together, I was always surprised at how comfortable, warm, and safe I felt when he was holding me.

"This would probably be faster if you phased, and I rode on your back," I suggested.

"I...I don't really...well, phasing...it's..." I was confused by his uncertainty; it's not like we hadn't done it before.

"I'm going to stop phasing."

I was shocked, and couldn't really speak.

"I mean, you're almost 25," he continued, "and I look it, and I figure it'll take a while before the aging kicks in, and it may take a couple tries to keep my phasing reflex down, so I figure-"

I cut him off with a finger to his lips. "Calm down. I'm not upset. You just seem like you've been considering this for a while, or trying to keep it from me or something."

There was a pause. "You know what today is?" I asked, "I mean, other than a day before Dakota's birthday, and a month before the wedding of the century."

"Yeah," he took my hands in his, and leaned in close to my face, "this is the anniversary of the day we first met."

I smiled, remembering. "I thought you were a creep. It was a place just like this," I looked around and saw that we were surrounded by trees.

"No," he corrected me, "It wasn't a place _just like this_, cause it _was_ here. Eight years ago, today, I saw your beautiful face for the first time." I surveyed the area again, and sure enough he was right. The spot where I was laying, spying on Kim, was slightly overgrown with new foliage, but, as everything else, was there nonetheless. So today wasn't just some random hiking trip.

I turned back to Jacob, and was shocked for a moment when his towering presence was no longer before me. Then came an even bigger shock; he was down on one knee.

"Myra," I couldn't breathe, "You are the love of my life and my future. You are my soul mate and the woman I hope to spend the rest of my life with.

"Every time I see you, I fall in love all over again, and you're my best friend. My heart is yours forever. Will you marry me?"

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

It took a couple moments to process everything he had just said.

I bent down, and pulled Jacob, my beautiful, strong, caring, soon-to-be-ex-werewolf Jacob up into a passionate kiss, pausing only for a moment to respond "yes".

* * *

**A final farewell to all of my lovely readers. Please, even if you've never done so before; review.**

**And super-duper-finally, you can find picture on how I picture Jake, Jared, Myra, and Kim's lives at missbook. piczo. com (no spaces)  
****I just don't want to clutter up my profile like a bunch of people do, and it's just so much easier to see them all in one place.**

**BYE, AND HAPPY FANFICTIONING!**


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